Where playing with toy soldiers is the whole point - and sharing the joy of doing so. And keeping a record of what's been done and what is still awaiting completion. A note of caution for those unfamiliar: this activity can be remarkably addictive and take over your free time. Well, now wait a minute, it's so much fun that shouldn't be a problem. Oh, that's right. It's not!
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Viking Era (3/18)

May 4, 2013

To paraphrase an old Wargames Illustrated article title: Well, I declare, a castle. While out working in the garage today - including on the gaming table - I decided to take a few moments to lay out the castle pieces on their prepared base and take a few quick shots of it for posting here.

This is from the keep end with the inner bailey the other side of the closest wall.

An overhead view showing the outer bailey with some figures to put the size of the castle in scale for you, the viewer. Those are 15 mm figures you see. The tower within the inner bailey is a cheap craft store bird hose with the hanging rope cut off and the bird perch sawed away. Stay tuned for a fancier option below.

Here is a low shot along the long wall opposite the gate house side.

A variation of an overhead shot.

Again, to scale things out. Not a small castle.

The dividing walls between the inner and outer bailey were cut - carefully! - with my Dremel tool as was the gate way behind the left hand horseman above.

A high shot of the outer bailey.

And likewise the inner bailey.

A closer shot of the keep. Except for the repurposed bird house, all of the components come from JR Miniatures and are stone cast. My plan is to epoxy all the pieces onto the two bases for the castle - which themselves sit on the outer base (still to be trimmed out of its rectangular shape - I plan to paint the interior of the 'underbase' in such a way as it can be either a wet moat when the castle is in place or as a large lake at other times).

An archer covering the main gate.

And the main gate. Before the fancier item below...

That bit in the inner bailey is a terrarium decoration to be used as a more impressive bit. Though I welcome opinions as to wheter it suits the rest of the castle or not -- painting still to come for all, of course.

Another closer view. The windows on the acquarium piece are quite a bit smaller.

And a closer shot of that piece.

A different angle.

A castle guard in one of the smaller interval towers.

And the same guard manning a different post atop the old keep.

This last shot shows one half of the game table - the part to the right with those hills sitting on top of it and some other items in need of a bit of wood glue in the back ground. Will be returning outside shortly to finish working on the other two -- of four -- pieces of the gaming surface, each piece is 32" x 72". It all adds up to 64 square feet of gaming surface. But it is in the garage which means hot in summer heat. Winter isn't so bad because I have several space heaters to warm up the space. Of course, on hot days there is a swimming pool out that back door and around in the back yard. So not such a bad place to game. Especially with most of the toys stowed in the closets behind the table.

Enough play time, back to work!

April 7, 2013

Not quite able to sleep yet tonight so I'm going to take a stab at listing what I have for this collection, at least part of it. I blame falling asleep while watching The Magnificent Seven this afternoon, slow day at home but not enough motivation to do other stuff.

So, here goes:

I have a tally in the folder of records for this that shows 1,353 men and 145 women plus 179 animals and 112 pieces of equipment which all adds up to 1,789 pieces. (for me, a man and a horse is two even if one casting) However, that tally is dated and I might have pilfered a few items from here for the Robin Hood set up, don't recall exactly. In the main, though, the listing is pretty accurate. Those listed with a hash are "mounted and horse" and the parenthetical notes are included in the total, not adding to the total. When non-combatants is mentioned it does not mean the other figures - or even these - have no weapon, it means they are not 'military' though that term really isn't entirely appropriate to the period.

For the VIKINGS proper I have as follows -

King 3/3 15 (3 are crossbowmen)

Queen 15 (2 women - 3 noncombatants including the women)

Viking 3/3 24 (3 archers)

Archers 15

Village 1/1 28 (14 women, 22 of total are non-combatants)

Viking 3/3 24 (6 archers) (3 non-combatants)

Viking 3/3 24 (3 archers) (3 non-combatants)

Viking 3/3 24 (3 archers) (3 non-combatants)

Viking 3/3 24 (3 archers) (3 non-combatants)

Mounted 15/15

Large Viking Ship - crew 15

Medium Viking Ship - crew 12

Small Viking Ship - crew 9

Mangonel - 6 crew

Trebuchet - 6 crew

SIege Tower - 6 crew

Bolt Shooter - 3 crew

Bolt Shooter - 3 crew

Mantlet - 3 crew

Ox Cart - 3 crew, 2 oxen

Ox Cart - 3 crew, 2 oxen

Horse Cart - 1 crew, 1 horse

2 long ladders, 2 short ladders, 2 climbers for on ladders

For the SAXONS I have the following -

King 3/3 15

Queen 1/1 15 (7 women - 8 noncombatants)

Clerics 30 (15 noncombatants)

Archers 15

Village 1/1 28 (11 women, 11 non-combatants)

Saxons 3/3 24 (3 archers, 3 crossbow)

Saxons 3/3 24 (3 archers, 3 crossbow)

Saxons 3/3 24 (3 archers, 3 crossbow)

Saxons 3/3 24 (3 archers, 3 crossbow)

Mounted 15/15

Large Saxon Ship - crew 15

Medium Saxon Ship - crew 12

Small Saxon Ship - crew 9

Mangonel - 6 crew

Trebuchet - 6 crew

SIege Tower - 6 crew

Bolt Shooter - 3 crew

Bolt Shooter - 3 crew

Mantlet - 3 crew

Ox Cart - 3 crew, 2 oxen

Ox Cart - 3 crew, 2 oxen

Horse Cart - 1 crew, 1 Horse

2 long ladders, 2 short ladders, 2 climbers for on ladders

For the HORDES I have as follows -

Chieftain 3/3 15

Druids 30 (27 non-combatants ?)

Women 3/3 24 (27 women, 9 non-combatants)

Archers 15

Village 1/1 28 (4 women, 12 non-combatants)

Horde 3/3 24

Horde 3/3 24

Horde "Vikings" 3/3 24 (3 archers)

Horde "Vikings" 3/3 24 (6 archers)

Mounted 15/15

Large Long Ship - crew 12

Medium Long Ship - crew 12

Small Long Ship - crew 9

Mangonel - 6 crew

Trebuchet - 6 crew

Penthouse Cat with Ram - 6 crew

Bolt Shooter - 3 crew

Bolt Shooter - 3 crew

Mantlet - 3 crew

Horse Cart - 3 crew, 2 horses

Horse Cart - 3 crew, 2 horses

Horse Cart - 1 crew, 1 horse

2 long ladders, 2 short ladders, 2 climbers for on ladders

For the SHIRE I have the following -

Celts 3/3 24

Nuns 15 (15 women, all non-combatants)

Merchant Mechanics 3/3 24 (12 non-combatants)

Archers 15

Village 1/1 28 (12 women, 15 total non-combatants)

Levy 3/3 24 (6 non-combatants)

Levy 3/3 24 (5 non-combatants)

Levy "Vikings" 3/3 24 (3 archers) (3 non-combatants)

Levy "Vikings" 3/3 24 (3 archers) (3 non-combatants)

Mercenaries 3/3 24

Large Long Ship - crew 15

Medium Long Ship - crew 12

Small Long Ship - crew 9

Mangonel - 6 crew

Trebuchet - 6 crew

Penthouse Cat with Ram - 6 crew

Bolt Shooter - 3 crew

Bolt Shooter - 3 crew

Mantlet - 3 crew

Ox Cart - 3 crew, 2 oxen

Ox Cart - 3 crew, 2 oxen

Horse Cart - 1 crew, 1 horse

2 long ladders, 2 short ladders, 2 climbers for on ladders

And the RANGERS (for lack of a better name for now) -

Rangers 3/3 24 (6 archers)

Village 1/1 28 (13 women, 36 non-combatants)

Lord and Lady 2/2 7 (3 women, 9 non-combatants) (dog and 3 falcons)

Dromon - 15 crew

Horse cart - 1 crew, 1 horse

Horse cart - 1 crew, 1 horse

4 long ladders, 2 climbers

----- the Lord and Lady will probably represent the Duke and Duchess of Ravishem ----

There are a variety of other items for developing the game. 27 female captives on foot, 33 male captives on foot, 5 castings with one captive draped over a horse and another tied to the tail, 3 sets with a mounted Viking with a captive in front, another on foot behind (holding tail) and another on a second horse. There are 87 casualty figures, what I call a "gore stand" - man on horse holding severed head and man with foot on severed head, man holding up severed head with a man on horse observing. Then there are the trophy horses (booty) with a mounted squire and horse, squire on foot with 2 horses, another squire on on foot with 2 horses, just 3 horses and another 3 horses. There are 15 loose shields and an additonal 36 varied weapons - booty or maybe legendary weapons to the Vikings.

None of the above includes the many buildings, an inner and outer bailey castle I've created that combines items from different sources to create a sizable fortress. There is a Saxon town, a Celtic farmstead, a Viking encampment, a variety of tents (18 in total I believe), and other buidlings like a lone tower for the border regions.

All in all, its quite a collection of figures, maybe a hundred or so are already painted. And I have plenty of sheep and goats and pigs for the Vikings to loot, plus other bits and pieces to which I am adding whenever I can -- crates, barrels, boxes, sacks and the like.

December 28, 2012

Well, it certainly has taken me a long time to get back to commenting on this collection. And my comment here for today is this: I have decided that this is one collection ripe for reduction in size. This all began in my earliest days in the hobby - well, really, return in the mid-eighties after military and college. I encountered a small and free set of rules that came with a magazine and I found the idea of warfare during this era didn't really appeal to me so much but the idea of small Viking raids on settlements sounded like fun. That led me to sign up for a game of Pig Wars at the first convention I ever attended. Turned out the rules couldn't handle that game - 24 players in 4 hours played through all of two turns; not very satisfactory. But I still loved the concept. I gave the rules more careful study and finally said no to them. Far too much of everybody else sits around while the active player does stuff. I like it when players are in a more simultaneous action situation, gets more adrenalin into the mix. Still haven't sorted the right rules for it. But definitely have more than I need and will target this for a redesign and reduction.

Afraid the castle has made no progress since summer but it will stay since I can use it for this collection and Robin Hood and maybe even for the Musketeers. One area I didn't mention above is that I also have quite a nice collection of siege engines and various carts and beasts of burden and crew so that I can do a nice castle siege game one day.

ORIGINAL POST

Tis a cloudy, dismal day in the north of Ye Olde Englande, somewhere along the east coast, a land divided by the River Bummer. Ah, but you've chosen a fine spot to visit for Pillageshire is a prosperous land and its principal town, Plunderborough a fine one - though nicer when the wind blows the smell of the open sewers away. And if you are well favored, you might be invited to enjoy the hospitality of His Lordship, our very own "Much Beloved" local Duke of Ravishem.

Not to worry at the howling from the woods, those are just wolves. But keep a sharp eye out if you choose to walk along the shore for a very different kind of wolf has been coming out of the sea of late. Why just the other day, one of the good friars from the monastery went missing just after a ship bearing the head of a dragon had been sighted.

Best, after all, if you go about well armed and with a strong escort - and a stronger heart. Though that might wreak havoc with wooing the lovely local lasses. Seems they're a might spooked of late - especially at the sight of armed men.

Ah, yes, but it is a lovely land, fruitful and harmonious. Except when it's not.

---

Of ships I have more than a dozen, a castle, and towns, and Normans and Saxons, Vikings and Wandering Germans, and peaceful folk, too. Like all the lands here, well most, it is overpopulated and underpainted. But, as you read above, this is an era ripe for inventive fun. The castle is under renovation so that it may soon be usable upon the table and perhaps a wandering artist may be availed upon to put it to canvas so that it can be displayed here, anon.